Monday, March 5, 2012

Peter Day Interview With Reid Hoffman on The Startup of You

Recently I listened to Peter Day from the BBC's GlobalBiz radio program interview Reid Hoffman (Linkedin), the co-author of "The Startup of You". Here are my notes.

You are the CEO of your own business. There is a tool-kit that CEO's use - (i) knowing how a service works; (ii) how do you build out the next generation of product; (iii) figuring out how to navigate the media world; This tool-kit is equally applicable to the individual. We should remember that we are always a work-in-progress and retain a 'beta' mindset (always in development, always changing, always investigating) - you just get on with something sometimes before it's perfect. Part of living in the modern world is that you have to constantly invest in yourself. Watch out for the threat of early success - keep remembering the need to 'learn again' in order to keep ahead of the field.

Peter Day asked if it is true that 'only the paranoid survive' quoting the book by Andy Grove and Reid Hoffman agreed and said that one has to learn to expect change rather than stability as the metronome and that we need to factor it into our strategy. He advised on the benefits of talking to other smart people and taking small experimental risks. Peter Day went back to Andy Grove's book and said that just when everything in the garden is lovely and everything is just right that is just the time when disaster strikes.

"But does it really apply to me personally as well as an entrepreneur?" asked Day.
Reid: "I think so for several reasons because I think that the intense wins of globalisation and technology disruption massively affect industry and organisations and the question comes down to 'Do organisations adapt?'". If an organisation doesn't adapt then the individual needs to be adapting themselves because if the organisation has layoffs - how do you continue your career? The second thing is the way the organisation adapt really only happens if they have adaptable people working in the organisation. People who are paying attention to these kind of changes and are thinking about it: "How do you learn more? How do you adapt more? How do you take risks? How do you invest in yourself? So I think this mindset is key not just to folks who obviously start companies but anyone who does any job".To hear the full program - listen to the podcast.